As Prescribed: Study reveals benefits of telehealth abortion access

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – This summer , U.S. Supreme Court justices are expected to review cases pertaining to the abortion medication mifepristone, which could impact access to abortion via telehealth. As we wait, researchers from UCSF have released findings that telehealth abortions are as safe as in-person abortions.

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“We enrolled 6,000 patients over the next several months, who were getting abortion care, telehealth, abortion care through these services,” said public health social scientist Ushma Upadhyay , PhD, MPH, in an “As Prescribed” interview with KCBS Radio’s Alice Wertz. “What we found is that, the vast majority of patients completed their abortions without any need for additional intervention – 98%,” and reports of adverse events were nearly identical to in-person care.

In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person dispensing requirements for medication abortion were lifted. Then came the Dobbs v.
Jackson Women’s Health ruling in 2022, which allowed for severely restricted abortion in several states .

Now, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court is getting ready to address other cases that cover access to mifepristone , medication used in more than half of the abortions in the U.S. Upadhyay said research supports allowing access to this medication via telehealth.

“We have about 1,600 patients who told us about the reasons they chose telehealth, what they appreciated most about telehealth,” said Upadhyay, referring to a previous study published in the American Journal of Public Health. She said they appreciated, privacy, timeliness and the ability to go to appointments at home or even at work.

Travel expenses for in-person visits to abortion clinics can be “enormous,” Upadhyay further explained.

“ I hope that policies and judicial decisions are based in the best scientific evidence that we have and that access to medication abortion remains available to people throughout this country,” she told Wertz.

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Listen to this week’s “As Prescribed” to learn more. You can also listen to last week’s episode to learn about the safety of COVID vaccines in utero here .